The International Festival of Academic Choirs Akademická Banská Bystrica is an international showcase of university and high school choirs, which usually includes a choir competition. The festival takes place every odd year on the grounds of the Matej Bel University.
The festival has a long tradition, since 1982 and provides a quality environment for the meeting of choirs and their members on a competition platform in a mutual musical and artistic dialogue with the intention of presenting the best of their interpretation experience and exchanging the most modern trends in the field of presentation of choral works by old masters and contemporary composers. The evaluation of individual artistic performances is ensured by the expertise of an international jury consisting of important personalities of musical life at the transnational level.
The aim of the festival is mainly to:
-
cultivate, support, spread and promote choral singing in an academic environment,
-
create a platform for meetings of young people and experts to share their experiences,
-
develop a positive relationship to various expressions and cultural contexts in the field of choral art,
-
stimulate creativity and, through the competition, support the improvement of the quality of interpretation performances,
-
shape the cultural and artistic skills of the young intelligentsia and the public,
-
present academic choral art to the public and the educational environment.